New joiner looking for advice

[Steen]

Hey guys, nice to meet you all. I'm looking for some advice about my Tony Franklin Fretless. It's a wonderful thing with awesome tone, feel and playability - BUT the G string lets it down. Just sounds dead compared to the others and no sustain. The open string sounds fine but any note you play especially higher up the fretboard has this problem. I've done the obvious things of changing strings and checking the set up from ground up, but no change. To me the problem is really confusing and defies all logic, but maybe one of you have come across something like this before?

Grateful for your thoughts and recommendations.

Many thanks

[SpondonBassed]

Welcome Steen.

[TheGreek]

Welcome Steen

When I read the title I thought you were a wood worker asking for advice on a build...

Have you tried adjusting the pick up heights?

 

[Dad3353]

Good evening, Steen , and ...

Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share.

Just a thought: what happens if you use a capo, at various frets..? Is that string still different compared to the others..?

[bigsmokebass]

Welcome Steen. Unfortunately I'm useless with fretless basses but I'm sure there'll be a topic somewhere. Try using the search bar and see what it pulls up.

Hope you enjoy the forum 😁

[SpondonBassed]

11 hours ago, TheGreek said:

Have you tried adjusting the pick up heights?

This^^^

[Teebs]

Hi Steen!

As TheGreek said, the magnetic poles may be dragging the G string and causing the sound to feel 'dead'. Lowering the pickup / poles under the G might work.

[Misowaki]

Again, as per the Greek, pups would be my next port of call after checking the set up if the problem persists.  Don't know if you've registered your bass with Fender but when you do, you can download manuals and sometimes schematics pertinent to your bass.  Might be worth checking through all that to see if there's anything you've missed?  Never done a fretless setup so don't know much about them but I'd imagine the string height will have to be different to a fretted bass which in turn will affect the pup height.

[Grangur]

Hi @Steen, welcome to basschat.

Sometimes, if a string is twisted it can cause stresses that stop it resonating in the best way. You can try loosening the string and see if you can see if it "settles" into a better position.

I've even had a new string that seemed dead improve after a couple  of weeks. So there is hope.

[BaggyMan]

does the bass have a string tree?   Some basses dont have enough  break angle of the string across the nut.  Try putting a capo at the first fret position, does the sustain improve?  try putting some pressure on the g string on the machine head side of the nut again does it change the sustain.

Another check would be to see if a slightly lighter gauge g string, if that improves things then get the slot for the g string checks in the nut. 

De-tune the bass by a semi-tone, if the g string picks up then it could be a build issue at that frequeuncy with the woods used..

 

[HCC]

Welcome, Steen.

 

It sounds like the dead spot issue on Fender bass. How about try a FatFinger. Clamping it on headstock might help release the issue.

[Steen]

wow I'm knocked out by the response - thanks @SpondonBassed, @TheGreek, @Dad3353, @bigsmokebass, @Teebs, @Misowaki, @Grangur, @BaggyMan, @HCC - there's lots here for me to try.

First up I lowered both the neck and bridge pick ups under the G string and noticed some improvement straight away (hats off to @TheGreek!) - I ran out of adjustment pretty quick, so also raised height of the string a little.  End result, definite improvement  over most of the fretboard. I still don't think there's as much punch as from the other strings, but I'm encouraged now to tweak some more based on the feedback and see how much more improvement I can get. Will feed back.

Thanks again, glad I joined. And @TheGreek - your joiner joke, oh dear 🤪

[Dad3353]

[bigsmokebass]

What more can I say than,

One of us!

one of us!

one of us!

Welcome aboard🤣. Regarding the bass, if it’s still not how you’d like it, take it to a guitar tech or luthier to have a look at, it may cost a little bit but you might find out something new that you can keep in mind for next time and also share it here as one of your first posts 😉 wishing you luck sorting it.